A hardened professional criminal is how the Uttar Pradesh police records describe him. His name spells terror in several areas of Western Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Delhi.

Police rating

He is rated a 'B' class history sheeter. Uttar Pradesh regulations classify criminals into two categories -- 'A' and 'B'. 'A' class history-sheeter is described as one who could be reformed over a period of time. 'B' class history sheeter is one who cannot be reformed.

Significantly neither the police nor the government is empowered to remove anybody's name from a 'B' class history sheet.

Police records show that Yadav entered the big league of crime in 1979 when the first case was registered against him in Kavi Nagar police station of Ghaziabad district. Before that the police records described him as a 'small-time goonda'.

He started as a protégé of Mahendra Singh Bhati, a criminal turned politician, who was then the block pramukh in Ghaziabad. With Bhati's patronage, he got into the clandestine liquor trade, which got him quick money and with that a bigger clout with politicians

Politicalpower

By 1989 he had earned enough notoriety to attract the attention of powers that be and then chief minister Mulayam Singh Yadav (in his first stint) promptly offered him a party ticket from Bulandshahr. He not only won, but was also provided a ministerial berth in the Mulayam Cabinet. He was made Minister of State for Panchayati Raj.

With political power in his kitty, Yadav become on the most dreaded mafia dons of Western Uttar Pradesh within the next two years.

Criminal career

By 1991 he had some 25 criminal cases registered against him. He gained so much notoriety that the then chief minister Kalyan Singh slapped the National Security Act on him and lauded the cops for putting him behind bars.

In 1992 he accused of murdering his mentor Mahendra Singh Bhati and chargesheeted by the Central Bureau of Investigation. The case is still pending in court.

Besides being named in nine murder cases, other crimes listed against him included three cases of attempt to murder, two cases of dacoity, besides several cases of kidnapping for extortion, as also offences under the Excise Act, Gangsters' Act, Goonda Act and even the Terrorist and Disruptive Activities Act.

These cases were listed in Ghaziabad, Bulandshahr, Moradabad, Budaun districts of Uttar Pradesh besides Jind and Sirsa districts in Haryana.

In the early nineties the Haryana Police in connection with illicit liquor trading charged him. As many as 350 persons had died following consumption of illicit liquor allegedly supplied by him.